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Death of King Teia,the last King of the Ostrogoths,killed by the Roman army at the battle of Mons Lactarius in 552(or 53)AD/CE.
After Ostrogothic forces suffered decisive defeat at Busta Gallorum where also their greatest champion Totila ended his rule they mannaged to chose a new king one more time-it was to be the last one in the history of their tribe.Teia was a confidant of Totila and his very trusted officer who started with gathering remaining Gothic forces imideately after he escaped from the site of his predecessor's defeat.He was predestined to rule only very shortly as Ostrogothic forces already had basically no own human resources to continue the fight for independence but Teia even so managed to show himself an energic and resolute war leader.His most negative act was to order an execution of 300 child hostages from leading Italian Roman families for their colaboration with Constantinople.Apart from this he attempted for the last time to resist Justinianic Invasion of Italian peninsula actively-to this effect he was able to use part of Gothic treasury and some of the best remaining Gothic soldiers and commanders.When high commander of the Italian Roman army general Narses put under siege city of Cumae where great part of another Gothic treasury was stored he assembled all his remaining forces and marched to relieve it.After several maneuvers of both armies Teia find himself and his people trapped by Narses near the mount Vesuvius at the place known in Latin as "Mons Lactarius"(Milk mountain).After two months of inactivity he came to a desperate decision of breaking through the Roman lines as his supplies were running short with no other option to die of hunger or completely surrender.
His final moments are described in detail by Procopios of Caesareia.Teia,visible to all with a shield on the chest and with raised spear, stood with several men in front of the lines.The Romans saw him and were convinced that his death will end the fight immediately.Thus several men attacked him at the same time. He protected himself with a shield,killed very many Romans and captured all the spears hurled at him to that effect he needed to change the shield for a new one time after time.At one moment he already had 12 javelins stucked in the shield so he asked his shield bearer for another but this time when he was left unprotected for a brief moment reaching for his shield,fatal enemy projectile hit him so well that Teia was immediately dead on the spot.Romans qiuckly cut off his head and put it on a spike of the spear showing it to both armies.
But it didn't had the desired effect as Goths continued to fight for the rest of the day and even for a whole day after their king was killed.Only futility of their struggle finally make them surrender when Narses guaranteed them free exit from Italy.At any case this battle proved to be the last major engagement where Ostrogoths fought as nation under their own banners and united under their King and even although some of them sporadically continued with small war their cause was already lost as consequent Frankish invasion showed even to the last idealists among them.With this battle an epic quest and history of the Ostrogoths was effectively over.
After Ostrogothic forces suffered decisive defeat at Busta Gallorum where also their greatest champion Totila ended his rule they mannaged to chose a new king one more time-it was to be the last one in the history of their tribe.Teia was a confidant of Totila and his very trusted officer who started with gathering remaining Gothic forces imideately after he escaped from the site of his predecessor's defeat.He was predestined to rule only very shortly as Ostrogothic forces already had basically no own human resources to continue the fight for independence but Teia even so managed to show himself an energic and resolute war leader.His most negative act was to order an execution of 300 child hostages from leading Italian Roman families for their colaboration with Constantinople.Apart from this he attempted for the last time to resist Justinianic Invasion of Italian peninsula actively-to this effect he was able to use part of Gothic treasury and some of the best remaining Gothic soldiers and commanders.When high commander of the Italian Roman army general Narses put under siege city of Cumae where great part of another Gothic treasury was stored he assembled all his remaining forces and marched to relieve it.After several maneuvers of both armies Teia find himself and his people trapped by Narses near the mount Vesuvius at the place known in Latin as "Mons Lactarius"(Milk mountain).After two months of inactivity he came to a desperate decision of breaking through the Roman lines as his supplies were running short with no other option to die of hunger or completely surrender.
His final moments are described in detail by Procopios of Caesareia.Teia,visible to all with a shield on the chest and with raised spear, stood with several men in front of the lines.The Romans saw him and were convinced that his death will end the fight immediately.Thus several men attacked him at the same time. He protected himself with a shield,killed very many Romans and captured all the spears hurled at him to that effect he needed to change the shield for a new one time after time.At one moment he already had 12 javelins stucked in the shield so he asked his shield bearer for another but this time when he was left unprotected for a brief moment reaching for his shield,fatal enemy projectile hit him so well that Teia was immediately dead on the spot.Romans qiuckly cut off his head and put it on a spike of the spear showing it to both armies.
But it didn't had the desired effect as Goths continued to fight for the rest of the day and even for a whole day after their king was killed.Only futility of their struggle finally make them surrender when Narses guaranteed them free exit from Italy.At any case this battle proved to be the last major engagement where Ostrogoths fought as nation under their own banners and united under their King and even although some of them sporadically continued with small war their cause was already lost as consequent Frankish invasion showed even to the last idealists among them.With this battle an epic quest and history of the Ostrogoths was effectively over.
Image size
4776x6864px 17.88 MB
Comments26
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I knew that there was Roman influence in the Goth army, but this surprised me, I imagined Gothic armor as a type of armor with Roman influence but Germanic style predominant.